The obvious example of something identifiably British in the Blake's 7 universe is that everyone speaks as though they're received vocal training at RADA.

Iain

Well, I did suggest in private that we drop this one until there's less chance of it resulting in another flame war, but I see the .uk contingent are already merrily dissecting...

In message 26.11f0813a.27d0f156@aol.com, Bizarro7@aol.com writes

Two words: X-Files. Week by week, American shows are *constantly* airing programs that have scripts involving evil government agencies and plots against the public in general and the well-being of the individual and their rights. Conspiracy shows are all the rage, and government conspiracy plots that accuse Washington of everything up to and including mass murder are frequent plot themes, even in non-conspiracy shows. So are plots showing US abuse against the indigenous minority and other ethnic groups within its borders.

Welcome to Britain, where we were doing this on mainstream tv more than thirty years ago...

*Earlier* than B7, but I'm not old enough to remember the start of Dr Who, let alone Quatermass. I do remember seeing the 1977 repeat of the BBC's 1954 production of _1984_, complete with original warning that it was unsuitable for people of a nervous disposition.

It's a mindset thing - I find it impossible to conceive of US tv *at the time B7 was produced* doing a similar thing. In fact, I find it very difficult to conceive of mainstream commercial US TV doing the equivalent of _Blake_ the episode even now. I suspect commercial tv may have been more afraid of doing downbeat shows. I certainly agree that US tv is doing bleak, pessimistic tv now.

There are cultural assumptions in B7 that are very, very obvious to me. There is a feel to the series that for want of better words to describe it, I associate with British culture rather than US culture.

[later, having read further down the thread]

Strikes me that some of the reaction from that side of the pond is a (justifiable, IMHO) belief that there is bashing of American writers going on. I don't like Americanisation of B7, but to me that means turning them into Americans, with stereotypical American cultural values. It does *not* mean h/c, het porn, slash whether implicit or explicit, or the many other alleged sins of the American style of story- telling. I don't see them as sins, and I don't see them as particularly American. Maybe I've just read too much English literature to take that allegation seriously.

Oddly enough, my favourite humorous zines include Bizarro, partly because it is clearly written by Americans but has a style of humour that is much closer to British tastes than most American-sourced humour (of whatever genre) I've seen.